Thaindian News

Shimla, Aug 13 (IANS) Noisy scenes were witnessed in the Himachal Pradesh assembly Thursday over Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal’s provocative remarks against the opposition Congress.
The trouble started when the Congress legislators disrupted the proceedings of the assembly immediately after question hour and demanded a debate over the construction of the party office here.

Speaker Tulsi Ram said this was not the appropriate way to demand a debate. This agitated the Congress legislators and they walked out of the assembly.

Condemning the walkout, Dhumal in his speech made rather provocative remarks against the Congress, which raised tempers of the Congress legislators.

The Congress legislators returned to the house after some time and objected to the chief minister’s remarks against them.

Leader of Opposition Vidya Stokes asked the speaker to expunge a particular word from the proceedings of the house.

But the chief minister got up to say that he did not say anything objectionable in his speech, further infuriating the Congress members. They rushed to the well of the house and raised slogans. The BJP members also joined in to raise slogans.

Sensing trouble, the speaker adjourned the session for lunch.

After the lunch, the speaker told the treasury and opposition benches that all those remarks which have been made without the permission of the chair would be expunged from the proceedings of the house.

Dhumal later clarified that he had respect for all members of the house and had repeatedly referred to the Congress legislators as respectable members of the house.